Journalist investigating femicide killed in Colombia

A young Colombian journalist who had been investigating a series of femicides in his town, among other violent crimes, has been murdered, the government said Thursday -- the third in seven months.

Luis Gabriel Pereira, 25, was gunned down Tuesday in the town of Cienaga de Oro in the northern Cordoba department “after being intercepted on a highway,” Colombia’s Interior Minister Luis Velasco said on his Twitter account.

This came after he “recently reported on murders of women in the municipality,” the minister said.

According to the Colombian Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP), the attack was carried out by two men on a motorcycle.

It said Pereira had been a reporter for just a few months, running a news portal on Facebook where he published reports on crime and security issues.

“Pereira had recently published a series of articles about femicide committed in the municipality, in which he indicated the name of the alleged aggressor,” said the FLIP.

“If this murder is confirmed to be related to his work, he would be the third journalist killed in the last seven months, two in this department” of Cordoba, added the foundation.

Velasco condemned the killing and urged the relevant authorities to find those responsible.